Clearly, it’s time to take a closer look at how taxpayer money drives the ACORN empire.

The Public Trough

Until recently, few knew much about ACORN or the reach of its 300-plus organizations with a hundred-million-dollar budget. The main financial sustenance for the behemoth comes from unions (which outsource dirty work, strategy, and anti-corporate attacks to the group), powerful and politically minded non-profit foundations, political campaigns (including $800,000 from then-Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in 2008) and taxpayer money.

That public trough has been open to those who seem to feel they are more equal than others. The Washington Examiner investigated and found out that “at least $53 million in federal funds have gone to ACORN activists since 1994.” (See the spreadsheet here.)

A large chunk of that money flows from the federal government to the ACORN Housing Corporation (AHC). On the group’s IRS filings for the fiscal year ending in June 2007, AHC reported taking in more than $2.8 million in that year alone — accounting for approximately 30 percent of that year’s budget. A 2008 report from the Consumers Rights League found that from 2004 through 2006, government funds accounted for 40 percent of the group’s $18.3 million in revenue.

Funding ACORN’s Political Movement

In 2007, more than $1.5 million went out the door from AHC to ACORN. Over the 2004 through 2006 period, the housing group sent more than $4.6 million in “grants” and “fees” to other ACORN-run organizations — and it may well have violated the law in doing so.

AHC is legally allowed to accept taxpayer funds because it is technically a charity, whereas ACORN is not allowed to accept such money because it is engaged in overtly political activity. But ACORN officials run both organizations and seem to use the housing operations as a publicly funded piggy bank.

All this money going from taxpayers to AHC to other, more political ACORN entities is troubling. The trail goes cold, though, and it becomes difficult to track how the group’s officials ultimately use that money. That’s why recent revelations of $1 million embezzlement by the brother of ACORN’s founder surprised almost no one.

At least twice, Democratic administrations have caught ACORN misusing taxpayer money allocated for community work. Instead, the group used funds to build its own “community organizing” efforts. The most recent example involved AHC using government money to support its efforts while trying to sign up people trying to learn how to buy a house.

There’s evidence the exact same problem continues to play out. An internal email from 2004 showed that a federal grant “will provide the opportunity for ACORN and AHC to work together…” Moreover, affidavits show that AHC employees believe there’s cause to investigate further crimes and violations. This led the Consumers Rights League to call for a Congressional investigation and conclude, “Congressional leaders should be wary of donating hard-earned tax dollars to a group with this sordid record.”

Where The Money Goes, Nobody (Really) Knows

What is clear is where the money does not go: The Examiner has reported that while the group is happy to take in millions and millions of taxpayer dollars, ACORN faces more than a million dollars in liens for unpaid taxes.